Coaching – So what’s in it for me?…

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So why pay someone to listen to you wax verbatim about you, instead of setting the world to rights with friends? What are the benefits?

Well because you’d be surprised at how effective that can be! I’ve lost count of the number of people who find they open up to me more than they would say their husband or wife, about things that really matter to them. There are no barriers or issues around self confidence, because as a coach, we don’t judge what you say or have done. It’s actually very refreshing to be able to turn to someone who’s totally impartial to you and tell them about things that are on your mind and also to have some space and time to work through how best to overcome the challenge and/or work out the best way forward.

Let’s take Michael (name changed for his privacy). Michael was made redundant from a company and job that he’d had for many years. He hadn’t had to look for work since he left school and as the main breadwinner in his family, was very anxious about his wife and family’s feelings for him now that he couldn’t contribute at home in the same way. Michael had obvious self-confidence issues (despite having worked successfully in his job for many years) and felt like his sense of choice and power had been taken away.

Coming to a coach helped him to reevaluate what’s important to him, to clarify what his life’s ambitions were rather than follow along a path that he hadn’t truly considered during the 20 or so years he’d been with XX company. He’s addressed his concerns about his relationship with his wife and family and spoke to them openly about how they felt about what had happened. He’s taken control of his finances and worked out a plan as to how long before he actually needs to be concerned about work and he’s taken up a voluntary job to fill time in the day. Michael has very obviously taken back control of his life and when we meet now he is considerably different in terms of body-language and tone of voice to how he was when we first met. We’re working on his plan for getting another job and have narrowed it down to a totally different type of lifestyle!

But that’s not all. Other benefits of coaching include a greater self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses, improved clarity and direction, a sense of owning your destiny, greater self-determination, an appreciation of your values, goals and life aspirations, a clear recognition of your comfort zones, ways to overcome conflict…the list goes on.

So when you consider what’s in it for you from having a coach, you can see there are benefits you probably hadn’t even thought of. I’d love to hear other success stories please.